Today's Deals

I'm not a coffee drinker but I know most of people in the world are.  Here's a great deal I found today for all the Starbuck's addicts out there!

Celebrate the season together with someone – and something – you love at Starbucks. On November 17–20 from 2–5 p.m., when you buy one holiday beverage, you’ll get a second one free. Warm up with your choice of a Peppermint Mocha or new Skinny Peppermint Mocha, Caramel Brulée Latte, Gingerbread Latte or the longest-running holiday favorite, the Eggnog Latte.


 

Also, here's a code for 40% off one item at Lands' End and Free Shipping on orders over $50!  Just type in the Promotion Code: FROST and PIN: 9471.
 
 
I don't know where you are, but around here it's a perfect day to wear something warm and cozy from Lands' End while drinking a hot beverage from Starbuck's!  Happy Wednesday!

Authentic People

I love answering questions about myself.  Is that vain?  I love filling out surveys too, which I've made very clear on this blog.  I think it has more to do with organized form filling-out rather than vanity.  Abigail is hosting a blog party that has an awesome list of questions to be answered.  I was so ready to answer the questions that I started at 7:30 AM, when I should have been getting my second grader up for school.  Maybe the few extra moments of sleep will make her even more beautiful.

Here are my answers to Abigail's Authentic People Blog Party Questions.  (By the way, Abigail is the daughter of one of my favorite bloggers, Lynette.  Lynette is one of the most real and honest people whose blog I read.  She has a whole bunch of beautiful kids and she takes amazing pictures.  Beautiful Abigail helps her out with photography.)

1} What's the nerdiest/geekiest/weirdest thing about you?
My obsession with forms kind of ranks up there, I guess.  I love coupons...that's pretty geeky.  I also claim to be an OCD Failure.  I love things neat, organized, lined up, and perfect.  But I'm always too busy or too lazy to get things exactly as I want them.

2} If you could live in a fictional universe from any book, movie, or television show, what would it be?
I would definitely live in Mayberry from the Andy Griffith Show.  I love that small-town feeling where evenings are spent on the porch swing eating coffee cake while playing guitar and singing.  There would be so much less stress in life and less crime in the world if things were really like that.

3} Little or big, practical or frivolous, what is one of your favorite items in your house?

My dad is a woodworker and makes the most beautiful turned bowls from rare wood.  They're worth a fortune and are definitely among my most prized possessions.  I also must mention my Shutterfly albums, my red stock pot, and my camera.

4} Do you like animated movies? If so, what is your favorite?
Love 'em!  Beauty and the Beast is probably my all-time favorite.  I adore brunette princesses who have a love for the written word.

5} What is your favorite household chore?
Definitely vacuuming.  I don't mind it at all and I love the straight lines it leaves in the carpet.  (See, there's a bit more of that OCD creeping up on me.)

6} What's your favorite thing to get at Starbucks (or your favorite coffee shop)?
Tall, no water chai, extra hot.

7} What is your favorite pizza topping?
I used to always say pepperoni.  But lately, I've kind of been an extra cheese girl.  I guess it depends on where the pizza is from.

8} Waffles or pancakes?
Waffles.  No doubt. 

9} Do you like to play games? If so, what is your favorite?
Board games rock!!  On New Year's Day, my cousins get together and play games all day!  It's one of the best days of the year.  Not to toot my own horn, but I am a beast at Taboo.  Like, pretty much unbeatable.

10} Have you ever let anyone win a game?
My kids- sure.  Other adults- yeah, I think so.  Sometimes you just feel so bad for the other person because they're horrible.

11} Have you ever dyed your hair?
Nope, never.

12} Do you make your bed every morning?
Absolutely!  I hate getting back into an unmade bed.  Clean sheet night is something I greatly anticipate!

13} Picasso or Norman Rockwell?
Norman Rockwell.  Again, it kind of goes along with my Andy Griffith fetish.

14} Do you like carpet, tile, or hardwood floors?
I like them all.  My home is mostly hardwood.  I have one room of carpet.  I guess tile is my least favorite.

15} If you could put one thing in a safe under your bed, what would it be?
My wedding album.  I actually do have my wedding video in a fireproof safe.

16} What's your favorite condiment?
I'm not a big condiment user so I guess I'll say soy sauce.  I do love me some salty soy sauce!

17} Have you ever thrown up on someone (excluding when you were a child)?
I don't think so.  My mom said I never threw up as a kid and I know I've not done it as an adult.

18} What was the last thing that made you laugh?
My kids.  They are really funny!

19} Think fast...what's the first song that pops into your head?
Your Masterpiece has been stuck in my head all day.  It's one of the songs we're learning for our choir Christmas concert.  It's so beautiful!

It seems like there ought to be 20 questions.  Ending it at 19 is so daringly different!  I hope you'll join in the Blog Party!  And if you're visiting from there, welcome!  I hope you'll look around and stay a while!

Operation Christmas Child

We are doing something so cool around our house!  It's called Operation Christmas Child.  Maybe you've heard of this program before but it's new to me.  Our church brought in all these red and green shoe boxes and introduced the program to us. 

We chose four boxes, one for each kid.  Son #1 is making up his box for a 10-14 year old boy.  Son #2 is making his up for 2-4 year old boy.  Big Sis wants a 5-9 year old girl and we are choosing a 2-4 year old girl for Baby Girl.  Each kid will help pick out little toys and gifts for the child they are sending their box to.  We downloaded coloring pages that each of my kids will fill out and ship with their box.  It shows what state and country we are from and even has a place to paste a photo.  They will sign the paper with their name and address, in hopes that the child who receives the box can write back.  These boxes are being shipped all over the world!  When we paid for our boxes to be shipped, we printed out bar codes that will stick to the top of our boxes.  When they are delivered, we will receive an email telling us what country they went to!

I think it's the neatest thing and I am so glad we have the opportunity to take part.  It is our responsibility to help those who are not able to help themselves, whether it be in our community or across the world.

If you are interested in taking part, you can get more information here.  This is the target week for collecting all the boxes.  When I watched this video, I actually teared up when I saw the children who have received boxes.  They were screaming with delight over opening their packages!  What could bring more joy to your life?

I think this is a great charity!  Your donation is even tax deductible.  Consider helping out a disadvantaged child this year.  If not for the Grace of God, you could have been the one in their shoes.

Randomness

A guy I graduated with was just elected as mayor of our city.  That makes me feel really old!  Mayors are supposed to be old guys with thinning hair.  I still feel like a kid.  If someone asked me what my first order of business as mayor would be, I would probably reply, "Uh.....I dunno!"

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I have lost my slippers.  I have three different pair and I've lost the right slipper of each set.  How could that be any more annoying?  It's slipper weather now and I'm unprepared.

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I get frustrated when I find a new blog I love and there's no "Follow" button to click. I only read blogs I can subscribe to through Blogger; I don't want to use multiple readers. So, what do you do when there's no Follow button?

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I got a new shelf that I will use for my grocery stockpile!  It's ridiculous how excited this chick can get over stockpiled groceries!  Toilet paper and brownie mixes are my biggest hoard thus far.

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My ex-boyfriend friended me through Facebook.  I haven't seen him in fifteen years.  He still looks really good.  Darn it.

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Confession:  I immediately changed my profile pic after I discovered the friend request.  The former picture was taken at the marathon and I did not look hot.  Plus, you could see my flabby tummy.  I put up a much more flattering picture instead. 

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Fire-roasted Chipotle Tostitos are really good.  I mean, like addicting good.

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I'm actually dreading starting my Christmas shopping.  That's odd for me...I usually really enjoy it.  It just seems overwhelming this year.  Hopefully I can bust out a lot of it online.  Do you subscribe to the whole Black Friday hype?

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Did I tell you that Son #2's iPod has been FOUND!  It's a Christmas miracle!  He owned it for a total of a week and a half before he lost it for two months.  His brother found it in their bookshelf, sandwiched between two books.  He ran downstairs and hugged me!  That's how important finding the lost iPod was to our family!

Just a Little Bit of Funny

I don't normally post videos but this was the funnies thing I've seen in a long time!  It had my kids rolling on the floor!  Please follow with Interview With a 2-Year-Old.

I Have Bad News

Ya'll are gonna kill me but I'm giving up on this diet thing.  I know, I know.  That's what everyone does after a couple weeks on a diet.  But I have some very convincing reasons why:

1.  It's hard.  I was working my tail off, only eating enough to keep a bird alive.  I still wasn't receiving good results.  I'm not willing to work that hard to lose a couple pounds.
2.  I am a bit overwhelmed with life right now.  I know dieting doesn't take a whole lot of time, but it's adding to my stress load.  I have to let go of something and this is what I've chosen to drop.
3.  The Holidays.  Hello!  Thanksgiving is a mere couple weeks away and Christmas is right after that.  I've already pretty much missed out on Halloween because I barely touched the Halloween candy.  I am not willing to be miserable through the holidays.
4.  I would rather work hard on the elliptical to stay at my current weight than to suffer through all this bad eating.  Sweets, chips, and descent-sized portions are way too important to me.

So, shun me if you want.  Leave rude comments telling me you're disappointed in me.  I can handle it.  In fact, I deserve it.  I'm not proud but at least my belly is full right now. 

I still would like to hear your results!  Don't do as I do.  Do not follow my bad influence.  Keep up the good work!  Every one of you was doing so much better than I was!

Goofing Off

Phone Calls from Work

I mentioned to Hubby the other day how weird it would be if there were no such things as cell phones.  He works a long day, you've all heard me complain about it before.  He drives a big FedEx truck and his route is an hour away from the terminal.  He logs a lot of hours and drives a lot of miles.  The good thing about that is we get to talk a lot during the day.  When he's driving from town to town out there in the boonies, he usually calls me.  If I'm not busy, we get to chat for ten minutes at a time.

When he first began working for FedEx, which wasn't even FedEx at the time, there were no such things as cell phones.  Well, there were, but they came in a bag and had to plug into your car.  I think the phone calls were something like a bazillion dollars a minute and we were poor.  So he had a pager.  Yeah, he was that cool.  We came up with codes, as all of you 80s children like me did.  111 meant "Call me."  123 meant "I love you."  Of course, there was the universal 911 that meant "Drop whatever you're doing and rush to a pay phone!"  I'm not sure if I ever actually used that code.

Now that he's so far away during the day, those pay phone calls would have cost us a fortune.  Have you ever called long distance from a pay phone?  Probably not.  Do you even remember what long distance is?  We're so spoiled, aren't we?

Since we talk often, the conversations can become a little mundane.  Here's one from yesterday:

Hubby:  What's for dinner?
Me:  Roast beef.
Hubby:  (groan)
Me:  Why do you say that?
Hubby:  What is roast beef?
Me:  You like that.
Hubby:  I used to, but the last time you made it, it was ewww.
Me:  (offended) What?!  No it wasn't!
Hubby:  Oh, you mean roast beef with potatoes and carrots and stuff?
Me:  Yeah!
Hubby:  Oh, yeah, I like that.
Me:  Then what were you talking about that was gross?
Hubby:  I think that was meatloaf.
Me:  I've never made meatloaf in my entire life.
Hubby:  No, it wasn't yours.  It was from KFC.
Me:  Ewww, that does sound gross!
Hubby:  OK, I'll talk to ya later then.
Me:  OK, bye.

See...that's what I'd be missing out on if we were still in the pre-cell phone days.

Monday, Monday

I need to tell you about my Monday.  It was an incredibly exhausting day, which is why I'm just now getting around to writing about it.

First of all, Monday is grocery shopping day.  I met up with my coupon friend right after we dropped the kids off at school.  I was kind enough to bring her an iced sugar cookie that I kept back from the church's bake sale Sunday.  (My kitchen was still a disaster from baking all day Saturday.)  At store #1, I spent $39.98 and saved $30.30.  Yay!  At store #2, I spent $67.76 and saved $49.42.  I'm getting this coupon thing down!

Baby Girl and I did not get home from shopping until 1:00.  We ate a quick lunch, she threw a quick fit, and I put her down for a quick nap.  She is still messed up from the time change so it was like she was taking a nap two hours late that day.  I then prepared for my evening.

That night, I instructed a group of 26 people in homemade pie baking.  I've done this before, maybe 3 times, but I still get nervous every time.  This was part of my teenage girls group, but with a twist.  Each girl brought her mom (or grandma) with her.  Only two girls didn't have a partner so I found each of them a sweet lady from the church to work with.  Dear Hubby spent his Saturday setting up the fellowship hall at church.  I stood in front of the room and demonstrated, while the mothers worked with their girls.  Each team of two made both an apple and a cherry pie.  They took them home to bake.

One of my friends, who was in the class, slapped my rear-end with a flour coated hand.  So I got her back.  This may be what raged the flour war.  It was mothers against daughters, friends against friends.  It made me feel more in-tune with what the Civil War was to America.  Well, not really, but it was fun nonetheless.  Then my right-hand man asked to have her picture taken with me.  Right before the shutter snapped, she picked up flour from my cutting board and threw it at my face.  Yeah, she's one of my best friends and now I can't remember exactly why.

Everyone had a blast and I was so happy we put this event together again this year.  My Facebook wall is lighting up with photos and thank-yous.  It took forever to clean up, but I had some good help.  As we were getting ready to leave the building, the security system began screaming at us.  Apparently, the system thought it was an hour later because of the time change.  We called the Pastor to let him know what we did and waited patiently on the police to arrive.  Somehow, the fire department ended up responding.  They just waved and smiled. 

It was an adventurous day and I slept really well that night.  In fact, Hubby said I was talking in my sleep all night long.  At one point, I patted him on the back and told him it was going to be OK.  I don't feel too bad because he talked in his sleep the night before.  He mumbles though so I can't remember what he says to tell him later.

And my pie- wowzers!  It was amazing!  Yeah, I know pie is not on my diet plan, but I don't even care.  You guys will forgive me come Saturday.

Silly Girl

I've been losing track of all the cute things Baby Girl has done lately so I thought it was time to get some jotted down. 

She started a new game of "Catch, Mommy."  She starts two rooms away, which is the longest stretch of open space in our home.  Holding her lovely, dear puppy, she says, "Catch, Mommy" as she whips it into the air.  Of course, she's about twenty feet too far away and the puppy lands inches from her feet.   She scoops it up, moves forward and says, "Catch, Mommy!"  The game continues on this way until she's a foot in front of my face, which the puppy eventually slams into.  (This game is much more fun for her than it is for me.)

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"Guess what?  I have a question to you!  I eat all my toast!"

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While coloring...
Baby Girl:  Mommy...
Me:  What?
Baby Girl:  I'm pretty.
Me:  (chuckle) Yes, you are!

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When she is frustrated at me, she calls me Sugar.  I don't think she realizes it's a term of affection.